Burst Media, a long-tail ad network, partnered with Anchor Intelligence in early 2009 to enhance its ability to detect click fraud across its network, which comprises over 6,000 websites. By integrating Anchor's Clearmark system, Burst achieved a 22% reduction in attempted click fraud rates and a 45% increase in traffic volume within six months, bolstering its reputation among advertisers. The solution provided Burst with improved real-time monitoring and insights into traffic quality, further enhancing its commitment to delivering value to partners.

1. “When we tell advertisers that we use Anchor Intelligence
to monitor all traffic across our network, it raises our
stature as an ad network they can trust.”
- Harry Klein, COO, Burst Media
CASE STUDY: BURST MEDIA SPRING 2010
The Customer THE LONG-TAIL NETWORK
Burst Media was established in October 1995 around the belief that the primary value of
the internet lay within the diversity of specialty content available on long-tail web sites. For
www.burstmedia.com the past fifteen years, Burst has stayed true to this belief, working with a vast network of
Burlington, MA web publishers, providing advertising representation, services, and technology to help
Online advertising network them attract and meet the needs of major national advertisers. During that time, Burst
Billions of ads served on 6,000 websites Media developed adConductor™, an end-to-end ad management technology and services
reaching ~64% of the internet audience
platform, which powers its two media units, Burst Network and Burst Direct, and is used
by many large media companies to manage their owned and operated ad networks.
Today, Burst Media represents more than 3,000 web publishers, which publish more than
6,000 web sites. Burst serves billions of ad impressions each month and is one of the
largest online media properties in the US, reaching more that 136 million unique visitors.
WHAT THEY NEEDED
The Goal
At the beginning of 2009, Burst Media used an internally developed system to monitor
To proactively identify and filter invalid
traffic for click and impression fraud. This system included both automated detection
traffic
To improve its pricing model programs as well as manual auditing procedures. Additionally, Burst employed a strict
site-auditing system, to ensure that sites experiencing unusual traffic patterns were closely
The Solution
reviewed. However, Burst recognized that click fraud is an arms race; fraudsters evolve
Partnered with Anchor Intelligence in rapidly and the company needed additional visibility into fraudulent activity across the web.
early 2009 The company sought a third-party solution to enhance its own efforts and provide
Funneled its data through ClearMark for
proactive click fraud detection on behalf of its customers while keeping its focus on its
Traffic, Anchor’s real-time traffic scoring
core business.
system
Used ClearMark Reports, Anchor’s
reporting interface, to monitor clicks After evaluating several solutions, Burst Media decided to license Anchor Intelligence’s
and trends ClearMark for Traffic. Anchor’s self-learning models train against new instances of fraud
Used ClearMark Alerts, Anchor’s detected across ad and search network customers’ traffic. This technology provided Burst
automated email alert platform, to with Anchor’s proprietary conversion information and best-of-breed network security
immediately respond to spikes in
intelligence, as well as the means to benefit and learn from the collective intelligence of the
fraudulent activity
Anchor network. By licensing ClearMark, Burst aims to improve click fraud filtering and
The Results boost advertiser ROI.
Improved efficiency of publisher
management team resulting in a 22%
reduction in attempted click fraud rates
A stronger sense of security, enabling a
45% increase in traffic volume
Greater brand equity and trust among
advertisers and partners

2. CASE STUDY: BURST MEDIA CONTINUED SPRING 2010
WHAT THEY DID in just 6 months and the average attempted click fraud rate
Burst Media integrated the ClearMark for Traffic system declined by 22%, making Burst Media one of the cleanest
smoothly and quickly. By integrating ClearMark with the networks among Anchor Intelligence’s customer base.
company’s adConductor ad management system, Burst was able
to identify and filter invalid traffic and protect advertisers from ClearMark has also offered Burst Media an enhanced level of
unnecessary charges. Using ClearMark Reports, Anchor’s security. Armed with the tools to identify and eliminate click
dynamic, online reporting interface, Burst gained unprecedented fraud from publishers in real-time, Burst has confidently grown
access to traffic and reputation data for each of its publishers, its total traffic volume by 45% in just 6 months.
enabling investigations into sources of invalid and valid traffic.
After turning on ClearMark Alerts, Burst Media was able to Finally, ClearMark for Traffic has enhanced Burst Media’s efforts
immediately address instances of click fraud when they arose on a to offer advertisers the most brand-safe ad network available. By
site within its network. licensing ClearMark, Burst Media has demonstrated to advertis-
ers that the company takes traffic quality issues seriously. “When
WHAT THEY ACHIEVED we tell advertisers that we use Anchor Intelligence to monitor all
ClearMark for Traffic has given Burst Media a new weapon to traffic across our network, it raises our stature as an ad network
combat click fraud more efficiently and effectively. The extensive they can trust,” says Harry Klein, COO of Burst Media.
information available within ClearMark Reports has enabled
Burst’s Publisher Services team to investigate suspicious traffic Burst Media plans to keep up the good work with ClearMark by
activity more quickly and thoroughly than ever before. As a using Anchor’s positive reputation metrics to continue its
result, the average click quality score for Burst improved by 47% growth online.
“Anchor Intelligence enables us to fulfill our commitment to our advertiser and publisher partners to consistently deliver
value,” says Klein. “We look forward to leveraging Anchor’s updated scoring outputs to deliver even greater returns to our
partners.”
For more information about Anchor Intelligence, please visit www.anchorintelligence.com, or email toby@anchorintelligence.com.
For more information about Burst Media, please visit www.burstmedia.com, or call (781) 272-5544.
Anchor Intelligence Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, CA, provides ad networks, search engines, and advertisers from around
the globe with rigorous, cutting-edge solutions to maximize advertiser ROI. With its diverse portfolio of data and predictive analytics
derived from across the web, Anchor's award-winning ClearMark suite enables industry players to improve the performance of
advertising spend online by predicting click and keyword performance. For more information, visit: www.anchorintelligence.com.
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/AnchorIntel.
Toby Trevarthen
VP of Business Development
Phone: (650) 492-5750
www.anchorintelligence.com Fax: (650) 320-9101
480 San Antonio Road, Suite 235 toby@anchorintelligence.com
Mountain View, CA 94040
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